Politix
You know, this must be a very frustrating time for the members of my audience who aren't 18 yet... or who aren't American. I mean, even moreso than it is for everyone else. Ever since I made my Goode Family review, people have wondered what I think of this year's election. And the consensus seems to be that it's a total shit show. And with that I absolutely agree. I don't think it's a secret that I dislike both candidates - everyone seems to - but I've also grown to dislike a lot of people that I've respected during the course of this election. Not because they're voting for someone I disagree with - that's anyone voting period - but the way that they've been acting. Demonization, bias, and the such have always been a part of politics, but this election is a new nadir. "But didn't you hear!? We're on the verge of World War 3! Massive social breakdown! Cats and dogs living together! Mass hysteria!" Oh wait... maybe it's a bad idea to do a Ghostbusters reference now. Who am I voting for? No one. Most people that I've talked about are abstaining, and one thing that I'm tired of is the shame being brought up because of this action. "If you don't vote for {Hillary/Trump}, then it's just as bad as a vote for {Trump/Hillary}" I've heard this. You've heard this. So... if not voting for someone is voting for their opposition, by not voting at all, am I committing voter fraud and actually voting for everyone - Hillary, Trump, Johnson, Stine, Deez Nuts, and Pepe? I'm not voting for any other major third party candidate (which at this point is a major oxymoron, tragically) all for various reasons that I don't have time to go into. It doesn't matter who I vote for anyway, I live in Mass, which is one of the bluest states there is. The only "state" more blue than Mass is Washington D.C. The two-party system, electoral college - ain't 200 year old political systems that are long outdated just swell? ----- I understand that a lot of people are frightened to hell of this election, but I'm not scared. Some parts of our government were made for just this kind of system. "If you vote for this person, it will be the end of the world." You do know that... in this country we have checks and balances, right? President does not equal dictator, nor does it equal king. Let's start with the most important thing - the president cannot make laws, cannot declare war, and cannot decide how the federal budget will be spent. You know, all of those big scary things everyone is afraid of if Trump gets elected? He can't do them without approval of the legislative branch - and even the republicans don't like him. What's more likely to happen? Nothing. Literally nothing. I have a feeling that if Trump does get elected, him and congress will keep fighting - Congress not approving anything that Trump does and Trump vetoing everything that congress puts in front of him. The president's main power is to say no to Congress and Senate. The president gets the laws that they've agreed on, and decides on whether or not to sign it or to veto it. And even if the president vetoes the law, Congress can still supersede it (if two-thirds of the members of Congress vote yes, it becomes a law whether or not the president wants it to be). The president's main power in law-making is suggestion. As in they suggest laws. Their main job is to enforce the laws. The president can't interpret the laws either. That's the Supreme Court's job. Sure, the president could end up doing something illegal - but you bet your ass, the second these two do that, we will hear it about. For weeks. Whoever gets elected already has a very high disapproval rating and are at a high risk of being impeached. And hell, people might even be clamoring to reduce the president's powers even further after this election. This is why local elections - the ones that no one cares about, and the ones that gave us Hillary vs. Trump - are the actually important ones. I'm not going to say there's nothing to worry about, because there are things to be worried about - diplomatic relations for instance. I mean, what's the likelihood of one of these two doing or saying something stupid (again) and provoking another country into attacking us? I'ts unlikely. The world decided that two countries with massive power (nukes) fighting each other would... be a bad idea, a long time ago. It'll be an embarrassment, certainly, but I don't think we're going to see World War 3 any time soon. At least, not because of the fallout of this election. ------ Elections like these always have a lot of smoke-blowing. From their rhetoric, it's really impossible to tell these people's stances on anything. I have a feeling that Hillary Clinton would need to consult a poll to answer the question "what's your favorite color" and Donald Trump would answer "glue" because he wasn't listening to the question. When Clinton's favorite color is "puke green" and Trump's favorite is "shit brown." Why even bother talking about policies, right? I mean, no one else is. The non-ridiculous Trump policies change on a moment's notice, and Clinton is more likely to be saying one thing while meaning another than actually telling the truth. I disagree on a lot of what both candidates are fighting for, I'll say that much. Any individual topic though could derail this. If you'd like to know, I generally lean libertarian... in essence means "do what you want to do, as long as you're not hurting anyone" and "government tends to hurt more than it tends to help" and "the government should only do for people what they can't do for themselves." I might do another journal detailing my individual political beliefs. And both of these candidates seem to be very authoritarian. The crux of the matter is that we seem to be electing someone who is all of the nasty stereotypes about politicians fully realized versus someone who really seems like he has no idea what he's doing. Now, most politicians are some mix of these, but this time it's all out in the open and highly in the public eye. Clinton's best trait is that she's not Trump. Trump's best trait is that he's not Clinton. I don't hear much positive about either candidate from either side. ------ So, let's talk about the media. If I didn't absolutely hate traditional media, especially traditional news media, before this... oh boy would this be the breaking point. But, it's a shit storm and no one is coming out clean. You know that old adage "there's no such thing as bad publicity"? I don't think that any news outlet has ever heard of this, because that's exactly how Trump got this far. Even on liberal-biased news sites, Trump got the most media coverage by far. And most of it has been demonization. But I am impressed because of how utterly fucking bad they've been at it. You see, everyone has been talking about his policies like "the wall" and "the Muslim ban" that Congress would never allow, instead of the more likely Trump policies that could actually do some damage. This has created many memes. Memes spread, get lodged in your head. It's easier to think of Trump's more extreme positions than Clinton's more extreme positions. Or any Clinton positions. This problem would have been stopped a long time ago if people could stop laughing long enough to use their brains. Trump announced that he was going to build the wall in his speech where he announced that he was running. And that's what got him this far. Not because there are tons of people who want a wall, but because tons of news stations, comedians, celebrities all decided that it was something worth talking about. The Collegehumor song "You're a Mean One, Mr. Trump" is even self-aware of this. How many episodes has John Oliver alone done on Donald Trump? More than he's done on Hillary, that's for sure. If no one talked about this guy no one would be talking about him and he'd have dropped out of the race a long time ago. Like he did in 2000. Before the serious criticism, everyone mocked Trump based on his hair and his hands. That's a great way to look like you're on the morally high ground and not have people take a deeper look, congratulations. You fucking morons. Yes, his ancestor changed his name from Drumpf. If that's the best thing you can come up with, what's to mock about his policies? Oh, you've been doing this for an entire year now and I've tuned out because this is all you talk about. "He's so racist, sexist, etc" and... how is this supposed to help you? His core voting base thinks that this country has gotten too politically correct. You know, the people who are tired of being called racist because they want to talk about immigration reform, at all. "His voting base are horrible people" great way to alienate formerly potential Clinton voters. I mean, if every vote counts... maybe you should find a different angle to take this. Downplaying Clinton's scandals means that people trust you less because you're showing your bias front and center. And the general public hates ''bias. When there are five stories pro-Clinton, anti-Trump on the front of the New York Times website it makes you look scared and insecure. What people have tried to call fervor has increasingly looked like desperation. And desperation never looks good. Every single time. Every single hit piece on Trump has fallen into at least one of these traps. And keep in mind, I don't want him to win. (I don't want anyone to win). Only 32% of people have trust in the media, and this is why. Maybe we should get rid of the two-party system. Then we can have a bunch of people competing with each other so that the only one with the cult of personality and talks to the people instead of competitors wins. You know... like what happened with the Republican primaries this year. The more people that you have involved the less of a lead that you need to have and the less base support you need to have to actually win. I don't like the two-party system, but it does stop and catch things like this. I wanted to stay silent for this. You know, as much as I get criticized for "ranting about things that don't matter" I'd like to think that that's part of my appeal - people can get into things that in the grand scheme do not matter, because it's easy to feel powerless, frustrated, or annoyed when it comes to the things that do really matter. It's at times like this when being silent is probably best for what I do and what my audience wants. But, staying silent has proven increasingly difficult with people now even calling out people who "don't vote for my preferred candidate" as all sorts of dirty things. I don't want to make a specific response, but they typically say things like "this is a tragedy/disaster/world war that you have the power to prevent." Once again, the president cannot declare war without the approval of the legislative branch. But... if Clinton gets elected, I guess I can blame any random crisis on Clinton voters, right? I can't do that because even the worst thing that she could possibly do doesn't come close to even the smallest thing that we imagine that Trump ''would do, right? Unlike Trump, Clinton and Congress have the ability to get along. That might not be a good thing. That line of thinking might actually be worth worrying about, no matter who gets elected. That we'll be so forgiving of their faults because "at least it's not the other one." But then again... this might be the primary reason that I'm not voting. I don't want to condone anything that either of these people are going to do. That's what voting is, right? condonement of every one of their actions? Even if you are wholeheartedly voting for one of these candidates, you're not going to agree with every single thing that they do. Especially if we get unforeseen disasters. I don't blame Bush's voter base for his reaction to 9/11 or Katrina because no one can predict the future. Voting is done in private for a reason. It's not my job or interest to persuade or dissuade anyone from voting for anyone. I've stayed silent in this presidential election, and I'm going to stay silent in the next one. Not that it really matters. You could have the polls tomorrow and we'd get the same answer that we'd get a month from now. People are... so fucking polarized now, and that is tragic. ------ So, what should the takeaway be? Needless to say I'm skeptical that "this is the most important election of your life" because this is the end result of a lot of problems, mainly voter apathy. A political insider versus someone who only got this far because he had a cult of personality. If more people cared enough to vote in the primaries, or local elections, this wouldn't have happened. My takeaway isn't "remember to vote" it's that you should have been voting all along. M. Night Shyamalan level twist right there. If you're 18 and American, make sure to register to vote. Do you have to vote in this election? Not if you don't want to - if the candidates don't appeal to you in any way whatsoever. Vote for a third party if you feel strongly enough for them. But, you should vote in the elections after this one. Your state and local elections. Pay attention to what your senator or congressperson has fought for. And if you don't like any of their policies, it's a lot easier to run yourself in those smaller elections. In a democracy, the world is how its people choose to make it, and "not choosing" is a choice that gets us situations like this. Category:Miscellaneous